The Doctoral Plan

My dissertation topic is still developing. I am currently interested in AI-supported online case-based learning and how AI, instructors, and peers contribute differently to the learning experience. As generative AI becomes more capable of providing explanations, feedback, ideas, and conversational support, I have become increasingly interested in what these capabilities mean for people's roles in a learning environment. What can AI appropriately support? What do students still expect from their instructors and peers? What kinds of participation continue to feel meaningfully human? These questions are becoming central to the direction I plan to pursue in my dissertation.

This interest grew from my previous research on AI-supported learning. I saw that students’ experiences were affected by more than the AI tool itself. Frustration could come from the technology, the instructional environment, or interactions with others. I also noticed some fatigue with AI-generated contributions. These findings made me think more carefully about what happens when AI becomes another active source of explanation, feedback, and ideas in a course. I am especially interested in how these changing interactions may affect students’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and how students understand the roles of AI, instructors, and peers within the same learning environment.

My Research Apprenticeship also shaped how I am approaching this direction. In the RAP project, I worked with regression analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis to examine the same research problem from different angles. The experience made me more attentive to differences among learners. It also helped me think more carefully about the relationship between a research question, the evidence needed to answer it, and the analytical approach used to interpret that evidence. I want to carry this way of thinking into my dissertation. I may use multiple forms of data to understand different patterns of AI-supported learning, while allowing the specific research questions to determine the final methodology.

I currently plan to examine these questions in a Chinese university context. In the settings I hope to study, one instructor may be responsible for many students, causing sustained individual support difficult. This creates a useful context for asking what AI can support at scale and what students still need from instructors and peers. Conducting the study in China will also make it more feasible for me to reach a sufficiently large student population for survey data and following analysis. My specific research questions and methodology are still being refined. As the dissertation develops, I hope to better understand how AI and human support can work together in online case-based learning and how different forms of support shape students’ learning experiences.